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An American remake of Death at a Funeral might be a new low. Consider: this would be a remake of an English-language film, two years after it received a considerable Stateside release. (I mean, I saw it in my local suburban multiplex at the time.) At least Nine Queens (which quickly became Criminal) and Funny Games were in a foreign language and barely saw the light of day here.

At least the remake of the quintessentially British farce may not turn out to be the anodyne Hollywood studio comedy you might otherwise expect. It'll be directed by Neil LaBute, who, with the bizarre exception of the Gwyneth Paltrow snoozer Possession, at least consistently makes interesting films. (And yes, I'll defend his Wicker Man redo if called upon.) On the other hand, I have no idea what to make of the fact that the remake is going to star Chris Rock. I can't really think of a more jarring replacement for the amiably goofy Matthew MacFadyen.

LaBute seems to have gotten back into at least some critics' good graces with last year's Lakeview Terrace, which (not for the first time) wrapped the writer-director's trademark edginess in a genre film cloak. It seems a shame to stuff a whopping hunk of subtext into something as droll as Death at a Funeral but it probably won't be boring. On the other hand, the remake will be written by Rock, not LaBute, and if Rock's previous screenplays are any indication, maybe it will be boring.

Variety reports that LaBute has also signed on to direct a rom-com called Here Comes the Sun, but we don't have any details about that one.

Last time we checked in on Stephen King's ten favorite films of the year, it was 2006 and we found titles like Waist Deep (?) and Snakes on a Plane. Okay, so maybe the legendary author didn't watch many films that year -- but here we are two years later, King once again dished out a top ten for Entertainment Weekly, and so maybe he's managed to see a bit more. Check out King's list below, with brief quotes from him for each -- then read the rest over at EW.

1. The Dark Knight -- "The best superhero movie ever. This is to cape-and-tights movies what Godfather II was to the gangster movie: a genre-defining event."
2. Slumdog Millionaire -- "It's been years since the movies have produced such an affecting story about the power of friendship."
3. WALL-E -- "I don't think it deserves a Best Picture Academy Award, but it certainly deserves to be nominated."
4. Tropic Thunder -- "The funniest, most daring comedy of the year."
5. Funny Games -- "It works as a savage parody of the snuff-porn genre even as it transcends it."
6. The Bank Job -- "High-tension cerebral thrills."
7. Lakeview Terrace -- "Jackson's performance deserves an Academy Award nod, but won't get one. Too bad."
8. The Ruins -- "It could have been ludicrous. Instead, it's unrelenting."
9. Redbelt -- "... this is not your father's Karate Kid."
10. Death Race -- "Death Race is filled with laconic violence and blasting muscle cars, but just beneath the surface is a biting satire of reality TV."

So, is King nuts for suggesting that Samuel L. Jackson receive an Oscar nod for Lakeview Terrace? Do you agree with the horror guru, or does the man still need to see more movies?

Eric D. Snider tried his best to trick me into watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua this week. It didn't work on me, but it worked on millions of Snider acolytes all over North America, who joined forces to give the talking-animals kidflick a strong $29 million, first-place debut. I didn't see it, as I say, so it would be wrong for me to bemoan the decline of civilization that this surely (if unsurprisingly) represents. Feel free to do so in the comments.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist opened to $12 million and third place, which I'd have to say is okay for the low-profile, borderline-niche film. That number, though not terribly impressive, is actually a fair testament to Michael Cera's star power, since his presence was literally the only mass-marketable aspect of the movie. So the debut is at least a draw for Sony.

It was an interesting weekend in that there were several films opening in, or expanding into, semi-wide release. The biggest winner of that bunch has to be Religulous, Bill Maher's aggressively anti-faith documentary, which did $3.5 million on around 500 screens for $6,972 per screen. Given the preaching-to-the-relatively-small-choir quality of the film, I don't expect it to hold up too well in the weeks ahead, but this level of interest is a mild surprise. Facing off against Religulous ideologically was David Zucker's conservative spoof An American Carol which, according to the estimates, edged out Religulous with $3.8 million on over 1,600 screens.

Ed Harris's lightweight western Appaloosa expanded to roughly 1,000 screens and took in $5 million -- which is okay, but seems like a missed opportunity. Faring worse were Flash of Genius (1100 screens) and Blindness (1700), with $2.3 and $2 million respectively, both landing outside the top 10. The grim Blindness was a no-sale from the beginning, especially since the critics never got on board, but the unabashedly populist Flash of Genius underperformed. Maybe the ads emphasized windshield wipers too much.

A bit more plus the weekend's top 12 after the jump.

At one end of his career, Neil LaBute was an up-and-coming talent to be reckoned with. He earned a reputation as intelligent Mamet-like artist of uncompromising vision with movies like In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors, harsh, cynical films that looked under the rock of humanity and found icky, squirmy things. At the other end, there's The Wicker Man, a genuine, "what was he thinking?" movie, and the curious dud The Shape of Things, which couldn't quite reconcile LaBute's stage hat with his cinema hat. In the middle we have Nurse Betty and Possession, two exceptional Hollywood entertainments with gleaming surfaces and dark souls. As with David Gordon Green and his delightful, mainstream comedy Pineapple Express, this type of "compromise" may represent LaBute's real calling.

With his seventh feature Lakeview Terrace, LaBute has once again managed to take a surface thriller and use it to work through some of humanity's ugliest and most hateful issues. It begins with a picture of suburbia, USA. Single father Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) struggles to get his kids up in the morning and off to school, but struggles even harder in relating to them. He knows how to boss them around, but doesn't understand them. (He makes his son change basketball jerseys to reflect "their" favorite team.) Later, he peers out the window and watches the new neighbors move in. He's clearly perturbed that it's a clean-cut white guy, Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson), married to a beautiful black girl, Lisa (Kerry Washington). We eventually learn that he has his reasons, his own emotional wounds, to explain why and how his buttons have been pushed, but it launches an all-out battle of wills.

Cinematical has received these exclusive photos from the new flick Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, and Kerry Washington. The film is a thriller about an interracial couple (Wilson and Washington) who move into their dream home in California; their California dreamin' becomes a nightmare when their next door neighbor, a high-strung cop (Jackson), takes issue with having an interracial couple in the neighborhood. Jackson, the self-appointed neighborhood watchman, increasingly (and intensely, if we know Jackson) harasses them, until the newlyweds decide to fight back.

Take a look at the pics, and let us know what you think about Jackson getting his mean-and-scary on in the flick.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Lakeview Terrace, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, and Patrick Wilson. Oh, the watchful eye of Jackson. This time around, he plays one of the creepiest types of bad guys -- a cop who can't be stopped. While a neighborhood like Lakeview Terrace sounds great and all, it becomes anything but when an interracial couple (Washington and Wilson) move next door to Jackson's racist cop. The man in blue starts off subtly -- an annoying light here, an awkward scare there, and then goes into full-on creepy neighbor to get the couple to hit the road. But Wilson will have none of that and crazily decides to take on the imbalanced cop.

Lakeview Terrace will hit theaters on September 19.

This week I've got a quintet of trailers for movies that recall other movies. It's Echoes of Movies Passed on this week's Trailer Park.

House Bunny
I can imagine the pitch meeting for this one starting with a suggestion to remake Legally Blonde, but without all that annoying charm and wit. That theory actually might hold water when you realize the screenplay for this one was written by the same team behind the Legally Blonde script. Anna Faris stars as a Playboy Bunny who, at the age of 27, finds herself kicked out of the Playboy mansion for getting too long in the tooth. With nowhere else to go, she takes a job as house mother to a sorority full of nerds/geeks/dorks, and everybody learns something important (I guess). If there's anything worthwhile here the trailer keeps it well hidden. Here's what Jessica thought.

If you'll permit me to embarrass myself for a moment: I'm the guy who liked Neil LaBute's redo of The Wicker Man. Well, maybe I'm not the only one -- if I recall correctly, Weinberg didn't hate it either. But I'm pretty sure that's it. Any movie where Nicolas Cage dropkicks Leelee Sobieski and then dons a bear suit for an extended stretch is okay by me, but most people seemed to think that LaBute was out of his element in the supernatural thriller genre. In that case, his next project finds him back in his wheelhouse: generating suspense by manipulating and exaggerating everyday social tensions. Lakeview Terrace involves an interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) who find an enemy in their new next-door neighbor (Samuel L. Jackson), an LAPD cop who disapproves of their relationship and becomes determined to drive them away.

A trailer for Lakeview Terrace has surfaced on the film's official website, and the movie looks like squirmy, uncomfortable fun -- the kind of material LaBute is most comfortable with. In addition to the racial angle, it looks like the film is going to explore another touchy subject: the near-omnipotence that comes with a police uniform. It takes some guts to make a cop the bad guy without also providing a virtuous foil (e.g. Ethan Hawke offsetting Denzel Washington in Training Day). But if anyone can pull it off, it's Neil LaBute.

[via Comingsoon.net]

Chances are, if you watch any type of indie films, or The Phantom of the Opera, you've probably caught Patrick Wilson. In the last few years, he's been the creep about to get fed some Hard Candy by Ellen Page, Jennifer Connelly's husband in Little Children and he also had a part in Running with Scissors. While he's got the indie scene covered, he hasn't really broke through to the mainstream, but I'm thinking this might help -- he's signed onto the Neil LaBute thriller Lakeview Terrace.

Cinematical has followed the development of this film for a while now. As of March, we had Samuel L. Jackson starring as a racist LAPD officer who has got it in his mind that he has to do anything and everything to remove the interracial couple who live next door. LaBute was in talks to direct (and has since signed) and Ashton Kutcher was being considered for the role of Kerry Washington's husband, forming the couple being harassed. It looks like someone came to their senses (who would want to tread similar ground to Guess Who?). Mr. Demi Moore is gone and Patrick Wilson is taking over. I'd say this is a pretty solid move for the film, and its cred has since jumped up a few levels.

The film starts shooting on Monday. I just wish it was shooting in Toronto. LA (I presume) gets this, and what's the big film shooting in the midst of the Short Film Fest theaters? American Pie sequel 38945793. If that's something that interests you, I walked by the production today. I can tell ya that there are horses and hay as part of their college shenanigans, and if you want to go snoop, they're filming in/near the frat houses north of the University of Toronto. Sigh. It would've been much cooler to walk by some classic Jackson ranting.

Playwright-turned-filmmaker Neil LaBute won me over big time with the smart dialogue and unapologetic characters he wrote for In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors. He then made a very enjoyable film from a script he didn't write, which in many other hands would have been forgettable. But after that film, Nurse Betty, he hasn't done much to keep me interested. I was especially disappointed with The Shape of Things, a flat, predictable film based on his own play, and finally couldn't even bother to check out his remake of The Wicker Man, which came out last year. He will likely keep me away once more with his next project, if it does turn out to be Lakeview Terrace, a thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson we told you about in January.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, LaBute is in negotiations to direct the film, which was written by Money Train screenwriter David Loughery. And if he gets the gig, he may get to work with Ashton Kutcher, who is possibly being cast as the husband of Kerry Washington -- because we couldn't get enough of his interracial-coupling in Guess Who. Kutcher and Washington would play a husband and wife being terrorized by Jackson's character, a racist LAPD officer who lives next door. If the script could be rewritten by LaBute -- the LaBute of ten years ago -- and feature a lot of scenes with Jackson beating on Kutcher -- really hard -- then Lakeview Terrace could have a chance, but the script is instead being retooled by playwright Howard Korder, and Screen Gems will probably want to keep Kutcher from being too bloodied up.